Diamond Sutra, chapter 20

By Daniel Scharpenburg

Subhuti asked, “When you attained complete Enlightenment, did you feel in your mind that you had gained nothing?”

The Buddha replied:

“That is it exactly, Subhuti. When I attained total Enlightenment, I did not feel, as the mind feels, any form of spiritual truth. Even the words ‘total Enlightenment’ are just words, they are used as a figure of speech.”

The Truth is beyond words. We describe it as attaining Enlightenment, but thinking of it as something we ‘gain’ can be a problem. We sometimes tend to think of it as finding spiritual truth, but it can more accurately be describe as getting rid of untruth. We aren’t creating our true nature, it’s our true nature. How could we? We are digging through the layers of delusion that keep us from seeing our true nature.